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Left 4 Dead Black screen issue

james2008

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So been around the net trying to solve this problem. Tried all the fixes
and none of them successful. Well, I've gotten a few steps closer, but still
no bananas.

Anyway the black screen issue is when left4dead loads up, but the menu
is a black screen, but you can still hear the sounds of the mouse pointing at
a menu option. But there is no visable way of see what option you have picked.
Oh and just to add, this has happend to many a people, with a different range
hardware equipement, from Nividia 6000 series right to 9000 series!

Tried the cfg fix, better, but doesn't work
Tired the "delete" cfg fix, again it doesn't work
Tried the RivaTuner fixe, still no joy
Tried the update, and the patching Drivers fix, nieh, nieh, nieh!
I've one left, I think, which is the ratio screen size fix

So if anyone could post the video settings file, it would be much appreciated!
The file settings I want is the "video.txt" file
found in the "..\left4dead\cfg" folder

It looks a little something like this (My current Settings)

"config"
{
"vendorid" "4318"
"DeviceID" "1570"
"setting.fullscreen" "1"
"setting.nowindowborder" "0"
"setting.aspectratiomode" "-1"
"setting.mat_vsync" "1"
"setting.mat_monitorgamma" "2.200000"
"setting.mat_queue_mode" "-1"
"setting.cpu_level" "0"
"setting.mem_level" "2"
"setting.gpu_mem_level" "2"
"setting.defaultres" "1280"
"setting.defaultresheight" "1024"
"setting.gpu_level" "3"
"setting.mat_antialias" "4"
"setting.mat_forceaniso" "4"
"setting.mat_grain_scale_override" "1"
}


Screen Shots
left4dead 2009-09-07 22-15-08-57.jpg
Selecting singleplayer!

left4dead 2009-09-07 22-15-10-93.jpg
Left 4 Dead Main menu

left4dead 2009-09-07 22-20-03-10.jpg
Game Screen picture! Somewhat awkward to play with!

Your help is much appreciated
Thanks in advance!
James
 
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Here is my video.txt file:

"VideoConfig"
{
"setting.cpu_level" "2"
"setting.gpu_level" "3"
"setting.mat_antialias" "1"
"setting.mat_aaquality" "0"
"setting.mat_forceaniso" "1"
"setting.mat_vsync" "1"
"setting.mat_triplebuffered" "1"
"setting.mat_grain_scale_override" "0.120000"
"setting.mat_monitorgamma" "2.200000"
"setting.gpu_mem_level" "2"
"setting.mem_level" "2"
"setting.mat_queue_mode" "0"
"setting.defaultres" "1680"
"setting.defaultresheight" "1050"
"setting.aspectratiomode" "2"
"setting.fullscreen" "1"
"setting.nowindowborder" "0"
}

I take it you've tried an uninstall/reinstall of the game? Looks like you have some missing texture issues (the textures i do see could be from a different file) (maybe a corrupted texture file?)

Do you play other games on this pc?
 
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You said you have tried all the fixes... what about a fresh install?
 
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Benchmark Scores They're pretty good, nothing crazy.
I am assuming that you have already tried to rollback drivers, but if not, then it might be worth a try.

A fresh install is probably the best bet.
 

james2008

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Each time I tried a fix, I reinstalled to be sure!
It's a weird one, because the textures are there, I have seen them.
But moving the FPS camera view makes them dissappear and reappear
at odd times and intervals!

This is the only game I can't get working. I have tons of games
Endwar
Prince of Persia
World in Conflict
Crysis
DOW II
Spore
C&C Generals + Zero Hour
Ironman
ones that are currently on the HD at the moment!

Just tried patching your video file to mine, didn't work 100%

Screen shots now
left4dead green1.jpg

left4dead green2.jpg

James
 

sneekypeet

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Solaris17 had an issue with steam he just resolved with the green and pink screens...shoot him a PM to see what he did to fix it?
 
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do a file integrity check, i had mine which kept crashing for no reason everytime i started it up, deleted and re-downloaded and worked fine
 

sneekypeet

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Just got a text back from solaris, and he says his did that due to his card not being seated correctly.

Try shutting down, pull the card, reseat it and try again.
 
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What hardware are you using? What drivers?
 

james2008

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Personally I think it's a bit of shoddy coding, and I have a
bit of a dated Dell, P4 3.6gh, 2Gb ram, 9600GT 512mb

Trawling through the net, have found people with 8800GTX,
9800GT and many Radeon Numbers too, all experiencing similiar
problems.

I've tried nVidia Forceware Driver 178.24, 175.19, and now on
190.62.

As for the Sneekpeet (Solaris) suggestion, thanks, I haven't tried that
one. Will after this posting!

Finally want to thank you for all your help, Only a new user myself and to
get a huge response in a short amount of time. Thank You
James
 
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i hate to be redundant, but when you do a driver install...you uninstall the drivers...then boot up into safe mode..and run driver sweeper and remove all traces or the drivers then registry cleaner...then boot back into normal windows..and then install them...any trace of old drivers can cause retarded issues...trust me
 
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i hate to be redundant, but when you do a driver install...you uninstall the drivers...then boot up into safe mode..and run driver sweeper and remove all traces or the drivers then registry cleaner...then boot back into normal windows..and then install them...any trace of old drivers can cause retarded issues...trust me

Yeah if your paranoid, not to mention driversweeper can cause more problems than it solves
 
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"config"
{
"vendorid" "4318"
"DeviceID" "1570"
"setting.fullscreen" "1"
"setting.nowindowborder" "0"
"setting.aspectratiomode" "2"
"setting.mat_vsync" "1"
"setting.mat_monitorgamma" "2.200000"
"setting.mat_queue_mode" "-1"
"setting.cpu_level" "2"
"setting.videoconfig_version" "1"
"setting.mem_level" "2"
"setting.gpu_mem_level" "2"
"setting.mat_triplebuffered" "0"
"setting.defaultres" "1680"
"setting.defaultresheight" "1050"
"setting.gpu_level" "3"
"setting.mat_antialias" "4"
"setting.mat_forceaniso" "4"
"setting.mat_grain_scale_override" "1"

There we go :)

Found a fix here:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=2537-DLCV-6627
 

james2008

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i hate to be redundant, but when you do a driver install...you uninstall the drivers...then boot up into safe mode..and run driver sweeper and remove all traces or the drivers then registry cleaner...then boot back into normal windows..and then install them...any trace of old drivers can cause retarded issues...trust me

errm Yeeessssssss .... No! does anyone?
I feel like a little boy whos been told to tidy my room by his mom.
Imotal phrase "Awh mom, do I have to!?!?"
James
 
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